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Forums - Gaming - GameStop's Slow Demise and the All-Digital Future - Colin Was Right

DonaldJTrump on 10 February 2017

Digital is too convenient to ignore.

I've haven't purchased a physical copy in about 2 or 3 years now and I doubt I ever will again.



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Intrinsic on 10 February 2017
archer9234 said:
Intrinsic said:
I agree, but my issue really rests with physical media. I think right now its being still pushed as the primary distribution model is just doing more hard for the industry than good. Everything around it right now is just really shady.

In a perfect world.... hell, in a world that makes sense.... A brand new game should cost no more than $40. With $30 going to the publisher and $10 going to the platform holder. The $20 right now on top that that right now goes to manufacturing and package costs and "paying the middle man" will just not be there.

There are benefits to buying physical, and as such those that want those benefits should have no qualms paying $60 for their games and in fairness they are paying an extra $20 just to reap those benefits.

It will be really interesting. A lot of people champion physical media, but I can't wait for the day that a new game is released on the PS/XB stores for $40 and its physical equivalent is $60 at retailers. I would be curious to see which sku of the game will sell more.

Would you sell your game for 40$. Because it would make sense. Or sell it for 60$, and get more money. Be honest.

Ofcourse i would sell it for $60. But thats not the main issue.

I don't much care if they also sell digital games for $60 just like physical games. As my following posts had stated.

My main issue is that there is a very anti consumer bias currently in favor of physical pricing in the idustry that makes very little sense.

If we are to be fair and honest, a customer that buys a game digitally is more valuable than a customer that buys physical games. Thats just a fact, because from that one customer the platform holder and publisher of the game is going to make more money. And that cutomer can never sell that game which in turn leads to games flooding the used market (that mind you the publisher or platform holder makes no money from used game sales). That customer also entrnches himself into their ecosystem as all his games only exist on their servers.

My issue is that when the price of physical games drop (something retailers have to do to get rid of stock) the price of digital games remain the same. It makes absolutely no sense that you can buy a new physical game for $24 but yet its digital price remains locked at $60. No sense at all... and that practice is ONLY in favour of brick and mortar retailers. Thats what I have a problem with.



Madword on 11 February 2017
potato_hamster said:
Anyone who thinks Colin is pretentious and takes himself too seriously should probably watch at least the opening for KFL2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6l6IHWmvlHE

Couldnt stand the intro of that video, it was full of pretentious crap. :|



Making an indie game : Dead of Day!

Goodnightmoon on 11 February 2017
potato_hamster said:
Anyone who thinks Colin is pretentious and takes himself too seriously should probably watch at least the opening for KFL2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6l6IHWmvlHE

OMG the cringe... That was horrible, I though it was a parody or something lmao



solidpumar on 11 February 2017

I hope for the day new consoles don't come with a disk drive and only with a big HHD and all purchases online.
It will happen soon and when it does we will be all better for it.



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aLkaLiNE on 11 February 2017
Shadow1980 said:
Digital is a trap. People complain about publishers doing shitty things, and most of us railed against MS's original DRM plans for the XBO. Now some are hoping to basically hand total power over the distribution chain over to the console makers? May as well not even bother with consoles anymore.

Everybody seems to think "Well, it works for PC," but consoles aren't PCs and never will be. Not only have the laws regarding software on PCs and consoles always differed (physical consoles games benefited from the first-sale doctrine, which never applied to PC software)l, but consoles are closed platforms with only one possible digital storefront and thus no competition on a given platform, unlike PC which is an open platform that can have as many digital distributors as the market can bear.

GameStop may have some questionable business practices, but this has been common knowledge for years. They are a necessary evil IMO. I have no doubts that if console gaming goes full digital (which will have to be forced as no other entertainment medium has gone 100% digital) the gamers will be fucked over royally.

Qft. 

Normchacho said:
aLkaLiNE said:

I literally came in here to post your same thoughts on what Colin titles his podcast. "Colin was right"? Lol. Get off that fucking high horse, even a broken clock is right twice a day.

The name is an inside joke. If one of the other guys made a prediction that ended up being true Colin would claim it was he who made the prediction (in jest) and it became a running joke amongst their fans.

I didn't know that since I never really watch podcasts and especially so for when they worked at IGN. Still, never really cared for Colin. Pardon my French but he seems too bitchy lol.

Goodnightmoon said:
Normchacho said:

The name is an inside joke. If one of the other guys made a prediction that ended up being true Colin would claim it was he who made the prediction (in jest) and it became a running joke amongst their fans.

I already had the impression of Colin being kind of a pretentious guy from time ago, even if i don't hate it or dislike it, he is just a bit pretentious, and now he creates a section called this... yeah i can't help but think there is a conection between my impression of Colin and this title, he was the one that decided to call it that way and he is a guy with big ego, you can see that from a mile away.

Yep.



pray4mojo on 11 February 2017

Gamestop is the new Blockbuster but not because physical media is going to die any time soon (it's not). The reason it's going to die is because people get their games online more than ever and know how to get better deals. Their business model of used games doesn't work anymore because so many other places are doing it and doing it better.



pray4mojo on 11 February 2017
JWeinCom said:
Very impressive that he managed to predict that the same thing that happened to the music industry, book industry, and home movie industry would happen to another industry that was reliant on physical media. Great job there Miss Cleo.

The book industry is still by far physically dominated. Digital books have been a flop.

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/retailing/article/70696-as-e-book-sales-decline-digital-fatigue-grows.html



pray4mojo on 11 February 2017
spemanig said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5tgo_OkwNc

Where have I heard this before?

Needless to say, I agree 100%. Gamestop is the new Blockbuster.

You'd think after this...

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=7828945

... you'd learn to stop making physical media doomsday predictions.



JWeinCom on 11 February 2017
pray4mojo said:
JWeinCom said:
Very impressive that he managed to predict that the same thing that happened to the music industry, book industry, and home movie industry would happen to another industry that was reliant on physical media. Great job there Miss Cleo.

The book industry is still by far physically dominated. Digital books have been a flop.

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/retailing/article/70696-as-e-book-sales-decline-digital-fatigue-grows.html

Interesting.  I got the impression it was going more digital because Barnes and Noble is the last national book chain, and even they're closing down a lot of stores.  I guess it's still physical, but people are just ordering them online.